Listing Your Home: A Picture Is Worth…

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Excellent photos help attract potential buyers to your home. You don’t need to be a professional photographer with expensive equipment to take great pictures. Clear away objects, use the right light, and put your home’s best foot forward

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When listing your home in Philadelphia, you want to capture the hearts and minds of potential buyers. The location of your home, the listing price, and its amenities will all work together to capture their minds, while the actual photos of your home are what will capture their hearts. However, plenty of Philadelphia homeowners make the mistake of not taking the best pictures possible.

Philadelphia Magazine’s Property blog even took the time to point out some ill-thought-out photos of a South Philadelphia home — the photos are dark, and they show cluttered interiors, including a cat and a person in some of the shots. You need to put your house’s best foot forward when listing it to convince people to see it in person, and you can do so by following these tips.

Choose the Right Time of Day

Avoid taking pictures of your home at night. Natural light creates the best-looking photos. When you use a flash, there’s the risk of unnatural glares from reflective surfaces like mirrors and windows. Just before the sun sets is usually an ideal time to take pictures of the inside of your house. The light that streams in from the windows is bright, but not considerably brighter than the rest of the room at that time of day. A cloudy day is also an ideal time to take interior pictures of your home.

Clear Out the Clutter

People looking at pictures of your home online want to see the home itself — they don’t want to see leftovers from your meal the night before, an unmade bed, or your extensive figurine collection. Before you take any photos, clear personal belongings out of the shot. You don’t have to clear out the room entirely, just move it so that it’s not in the frame. For bedroom shots, make the beds first and put away any clothing or random objects that might be laying around.

Focus on the Home

Remember that you’re selling the home, not the furniture. When you take a picture of each room, focus on the built-in details of that room. If the house has built-in bookshelves, use photos that highlight them instead of zooming in on the couch or other temporary details of the space. Take pictures of the entire room, not specific corners or areas. If your photos leave areas out, people will wonder what you are trying to hide.

Use a Decent Camera

You should invest in a digital camera to take pictures when listing your home. You don’t have to get the most complicated camera on the market or purchase a high-end DSLR model. The ideal camera is one you know how to operate, not necessarily the most expensive one available. Along with a good camera, you may want to invest in a tripod to hold it steady and prevent blurry shots.

Get More Photos Than You Think You Need

The major benefit of digital photography is that you can take an almost unlimited amount of pictures. Take more pictures of your house than you think necessary, so you give yourself more options when picking out photos to use in the listing. It’s better to take a bunch of photos during the initial shoot than to later find out you don’t like any of the pictures you took and have to start over.

Fantastic listing photos can make all the difference when it comes to selling your home quickly. Use the pictures to attract potential buyers and to showcase your home as the truly great place it is.

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